In this chapter from Django Unleashed, Andrew Pinkham introduces the modern world of building dynamic websites. He starts by introducing web technologies and jargon before taking a look at Django. His introduction to Django focuses on what Django is and appropriate ways to use it. He then outlines the project you'll build, scoping out the content for not only Part I but also Parts II and III. This overview gives you the opportunity to use Django to generate a basic project that you'll use throughout the book.

1.1 Introduction

We have a lot to do and a lot to learn, but instead of jumping right in, let’s take a moment to understand what we’re doing.

Part I is an example meant to demonstrate the core features of Django. Part I is intended to be read linearly. Jump between chapters at your own peril!

This first chapter is a general introduction to the modern world of building dynamic websites. We start by introducing web technologies and jargon before taking a look at Django. Our introduction to Django focuses on what Django is and appropriate ways to use it. We then outline the project we’ll build, scoping out the content for not only Part I but also Parts II and III. This overview gives us the opportunity to use Django to generate a basic project that we’ll use throughout the book.

WARNING!

This book assumes knowledge of Python (but not web technologies)! While the appendix supplies a very short review of Python, this book will not teach you to code in Python.

Info

This book is heavily tied to a git repository, which contains all of the project code and much of the example code found in this book:

To get started with this book, you only really need to have Python and Django installed. However, having tools like git, virtualenvwrapper, and pip will make your life significantly easier. For install instructions and the full list of tools helpful for building Django projects, please see Appendix G.